China's Liuyang River Bridge Demolished In Front Of Huge Crowds (Video)

China's Liuyang River Bridge Demolished In Front Of Huge Crowds (VIDEO)

2011's been a good year for building demolition enthusiasts. November saw Motherwell's infamous tower block "Heroin Heights" reduced to rubble, and May was the month when student accommodation blocks from Aston University toppled down like a poorly-played game of Jenga.

China's also been getting in on the exploding building action, with luxury apartment complexes getting the heave-ho just months after they've opened and now this, Liuyang River Bridge in China's Hunan Province going all kablooey before an audience of thousands.

First unveiled to the public back in 1994, it's been just 17 years since the people of Changsha City got the chance to drive down its 760-metre stretch of cable-supported bridgeyness - but it seems it's proved to be so popular amongst the city's 7 million population that a bigger one has to be built in the new year.

"The bridge was over the capacity limit, which is actually prohibited by the government and this has shortened the service life of the bridge greatly," engineer Xie Zeling told reporters.

In fact, the bridge was originally designed for 30,000 cars a day, whereas recently it's been 80,000 of them, forcing the local authorities' hand... onto a big red button marked "EXPLOSION". Presumably.

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